Princess Mathilde of Bavaria

Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (Mathilde Marie Theresia Henriette Christine Luitpolda; 17 August 1877 – 6 August 1906) was the sixth child of Ludwig III of Bavaria and his wife, Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.[2] After her early death, Life-Dreams: The Poems of a Blighted Life, a collection of poems she wrote, was published in 1910.

Not to be confused with Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria.
Mathilde of Bavaria
Princess Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Born(1877-08-17)17 August 1877
Villa Amsee, Lindau, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died6 August 1906(1906-08-06) (aged 28)
Davos, Switzerland
Burial
Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Rieden[1]
SpousePrince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
IssuePrince Antonius Maria Ludwig
Princess Maria Immaculata Leopoldine
Names
Mathilde Marie Theresia Henriette Christine Luitpolda
HouseWittelsbach
FatherLudwig III of Bavaria
MotherMaria Theresa of Austria-Este

Family and early life

Princess Mathilde was born on 17 August 1877 as the sixth child and third daughter of Ludwig III of Bavaria at the family's summer residence of Villa Amsee in Lindau.[2] Though she was the favorite daughter of her father, she and her mother were not close. Some speculate that she only married as an escape from her home.

Later years

Marriage and issue
Mathilde and Ludwig with their son
Mathilde of Bavaria - Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 1900s

Various candidates were rumored to be engaged to Princess Mathilde at different times. These included, in 1896, the Prince of Naples,[3] but he married Princess Elena of Montenegro later that year. Others included Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,[4] and Jaime, Duke of Madrid.

On 1 May 1900 in Munich, Mathilde married Prince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a son of Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife Princess Leopoldina of Brazil.[2] He was a captain in the Austrian army, and had been raised in Brazil as a grandson of Emperor Pedro II.[4] The prince was also from the Catholic branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They had two children: Prince Antonius of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (17 June 1901 – 1 September 1970); and Princess Maria Immaculata of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (10 September 1904 – 18 March 1940).

Death

Mathilde died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, on 6 August 1906, in Davos, Switzerland.[2] Her remains are buried in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in the little village of Rieden near her family home at Schloss Leutstetten. Her husband remarried a year later to Countess Anna of Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.

In 1910 Mathilde's family anonymously published some of her poems as Traum und Leben: Gedichte einer früh Vollendeten. In 1913 John Heard translated and published them in English as Life-Dreams: The Poems of a Blighted Life.[5][6]

Ancestry

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Mathilde of Bavaria.
  1. "WITTELSBACH, KINGS OF BAVARIA". Royalty (travel) Guide. Archived from the original on 3 January 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  2. Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Mathilde Marie Prinzessin von Bayern". Retrieved 8 December 2010.
  3. "Current News", New York Observer and Chronicle, 2 January 1896
  4. "Buller and his Strange Visions", The Washington Post, 5 November 1899
  5. R.R. Bowker Company (1913). The publishers weekly, Volume 84, Part 1. New York: Office of the Publishers' Weekly. p. 664.
  6. Mathilde, Princess of Bavaria (1910). Life-dreams: the poems of a blighted life.
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